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Friday, January 14, 2022

Friday Favorites

 Hello there! Happy Friday! Today we are on our way to the mountains for Lily Grace's first WeeSki ski lesson. I am more excited than she is. One of the best parts of parenting is getting to share the things you love with your children, and I have some of the fondest memories of skiing as a kid. I can't wait for us to be able to ski together one day!

Today I am linking up with Andrea and Erika for Friday Favorites. I have a random assortment of fun things for ya!

Favorite Things We Ate:

Baja Cauliflower Tacos

We got a new cookbook for Christmas, the America's Test Kitchen Plant-Based Cookbook, and this has been one of our favorite recipes so far. It's supposed to be a plant-based take on fish tacos, and the coconut crusted cauliflower is so flavorful you honestly don't miss the fish at all. The recipe is blocked on America's Test Kitchen's website, but I found the exact same recipe here

You all know how much I love exposing the kids to new unique foods, and this week we scored with two new fun ones! Earlier this week I was at Fresh Market and they had pineberries:

Pineberries are supposed to look like a white strawberry but taste like a pineapple. I can't say it quite tasted like a pineapple, but it was delicious nonetheless! The kids loved them.

We also found a red dragon fruit at the New Asia Market:

The kids have had black & white dragonfruit before but they were excited when we opened this one up and it was bright red. We put it in a smoothie and it made our smoothie bright pink. Our pink-loving 4 year old was very excited.


Random Things:

Instacart.

You guys, at the risk of sounding overdramatic... this has changed my life. Do you use Instacart? I had used it once before when the kids were sick and Devin was out of town, but am normally too cheap to pay a fee for someone to shop for me. 

But then we were on the drive home from DisneyWorld and still had about 4 hours left... I knew we had no groceries in the house and I was way too tired to go out and buy groceries after we got home and got the kids in bed. I figured it was worth the fee to have the groceries dropped off on our porch. When I went on their website I saw they were doing a promotion where if you use a Chase card to pay for your groceries, your delivery fee was waived. The promotion is going from now until the end of January, and you can cancel your membership at any time. According to the Instacart website I have saved 15 hours by using their service. That is 15 hours that can be spent doing much more important things! I had every intention of using the service and then cancelling at the end of the month, but honestly it is so convenient I may not. 


Puzzle Holder

Lily Grace loves puzzles, and often does the same puzzles over and over again. Because of this her puzzle boxes were showing a lot of wear and tear:

I was at Michael's this week and saw they had this, which they called a "craft organizer":

I thought "hmm, looks like a potential puzzle organizer to me!" I cut the puzzle pictures off their box, taped them inside each little plastic box, and then put the puzzle pieces inside. Not only will these boxes last longer than the cardboard ones, but this is actually an easier way to store her puzzles too. 

Do your kids ever go through such a rapid growth spurt that it feels like they wake up one morning and all of a sudden none of their clothes fit? Liam shot up in height recently and now he is almost as tall as Lily Grace... and she's no shorty! Please check out the length on his pants:

I promise those fit last month! They are hiked up a teensy bit, but not that much!

Our sweet girl has been doing "extra chores" around the house to earn money for her piggy bank. She has a list of chores she is expected to do already (make her bed, put her laundry in the hamper, put her dishes in the sink, etc.) but she has been helping with things like wiping down Liam's booster after dinner, helping put away laundry that isn't hers, etc. She was very excited to learn she had finally earned enough money to buy her own Mirabel doll (from Encanto). 

And if you haven't seen Encanto yet, it's adorable! The storyline is so sweet, there are no parts that would be too scary for little kids, and the music is fantastic. We have been listening to the soundtrack nonstop over here!


And last but not least, when I had my girls trip to Chicago back in November my friends and I were all sharing beauty products with each other and Kathleen gave me this:

The IGK Beach Club Volumizing Texture Spray. I have used Oribe's texturizing spray for years, and have tried DryBar's too, but this ons is my new favorite by a landslide! It gives your hair the gritty (in a good way) feel of a texturizing spray, but the look of fresh-off-the-beach-salty-hair. The next time I use it I'll try to grab a before and after picture. I'll link the sample size here so you can try it without having to pay for the whole big bottle. 

I hope you all have a nice weekend!

9 comments :

  1. We have not had pineberries but I want to try them! My kids love dragonfruit. And I agree, I save a ton of time with Instacart so I think it's totally worth it. Plus I feel like I don't impulse buy and I stick to the list so I feel like I do actually save money. Have a great weekend!

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  2. I love buying fun new fruit too! We have an international grocery store near us that we visit every once in awhile. I love seeing the new things.
    I order my groceries from the grocery store and the store staff put it together and I pick it up. I have been doing it for years, even pre-pandemic, not for every grocery store trip, but on a fairly regular basis. They do a good job of picking everything out and it's still quick enough for me to pick it up.
    Glad your girl is learning to ski - a life long hobby!

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  3. Also, thanks for that recipe! Looks delicious.

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  4. Now I want to go shopping and find new fun fruit. I always do instant cart and just do pick up it is better than having to drag the kids in the store.

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  5. What a creative way to store puzzles! I haven't seen Encanto yet but I keep hearing so many good things about it!

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  6. Those cauliflower tacos look delicious! I have to check the recipe out. I haven't done Instacart but have done the Shoprite shopping service where you just go and pick up the groceries that you ordered. It's been super convenient. Have a great weekend!

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  7. I love new fruits! One summer, every time we went to the grocery store, the kids picked out something in the produce section they had never had before. It was really fun and stretched me to keep including new fruits and veggies. Have fun skiing!

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  8. That craft organizer is perfect for puzzles! I use those to organize our photos (all my albums fell apart last year and I refused to transfer all the photos over- those organizers hold so many photos and take up so much less space!). We don't have instacart here; we just got grocery pickup with the pandemic and I use it quite often!

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  9. I'll have to give that texture spray a try! I've been looking for one that really works. Can't say I've heard of pineberries.

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